A communication system can be seen as a facility that enables communication sessions between two or more entities such as user terminal and/or other nodes associated with the communication system. Users of a communication system may be offered and provided numerous services, such as two-way or multi-way calls, data communication or multimedia services or simply an access to a network, such as the Internet. The services may be offered by an operator of the communication system or by an external service provider.
Examples of communication systems may include fixed line communication systems, such as a public switched telephone network (PSTN), wireless communication systems, e.g. global system for mobile communications (GSM), general packet radio service (GPRS), universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS), wireless local area network (WLAN) and so on, and/or other communication networks, such as an Internet Protocol (IP) network and/or other packet switched data networks. The IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) is an example of a system providing multimedia services. Various communication systems may simultaneously be concerned in a connection.
An end-user may access a communication network by means of any appropriate user equipment (UE), for example a mobile terminal, such as a mobile station (MS), a cellular phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA) or the like, or other terminals, such as a personal computer (PC), or any other equipment operable according to a suitable network protocol, such as a wireless applications protocol (WAP) or a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP). The user equipment may support, in addition to call and network access functions, other services, such as short message service (SMS), multimedia messaging service (MMS), electronic mail (email), Web service interface (WSI) messaging and voice mail. A mobile terminal may comprise an identity module, for example a subscriber identity module (SIM), a UMTS subscriber identity module (USIM) or a wireless identity module (WIM). The identity module is suitably a device allowing transfer of subscription data from one UE to another and may be shortly referred to as a subscriber. Respectively, a mobile station without the identity module may be referred to as a Mobile Equipment (ME).
Using the MMS, or multimedia messaging, it is possible to provide various content services, such as news services, sound clips, video clips, and so on, from a server to UE. MMS typically employs Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) on a circuit switched or packet switched bearer. However, there may be numerous difficulties or drawbacks in providing content using the MMS. For example, the users may perceive as relatively high the charging of content services over wireless connections with relatively slow speeds. Small displays of some types of mobile stations may increase a threshold in ordering content provided using the MMS and render these services unattractive.
A content provider may, for instance, attempt to attract users or customers by providing free samples or “teasers”. The free samples or teasers may provide only a part of the content or the entire content with a reduced quality. This should attract users to order a sample and to become keen on ordering the whole content or a better quality version, which are chargeable.
To charge for content, a content provider may run a private charging procedure or may rely on a cellular network operator. Charging via a telephone bill with the aid of the network operator may be a preferred solution due to its ease and low running costs. The content provider may itself run a cellular network or the content provider may make a charging agreement with the network operator. Running a cellular network may not be feasible for many content providers. Having a charging agreement with the network operator competes with the interest of the network operator to provide the content services itself.
If only a part of content is provided as a sample, the user may not be easily attracted to test the service at all, at least not more than once. Even if the full content with lower quality was first provided as a sample, the user may consider the gain from getting the content in better quality not worth the trouble of ordering and waiting for the full content to download.
Patent Publication U.S. Pat. No. 5,933,498 presents an arrangement for controlling access and distribution of digital property, wherein protected rules are distributed with data and the access to the data is controlled by the protected rules. Patent publication U.S. Pat. No. 5,509,070 presents an arrangement where a computer program is delivered with a software tool, which provides password functionality bundled in the computer program. The arrangement of U.S. Pat. No. 5,509,070 works only with executable content since the digital rights management functionality is provided by the content itself. U.S. Pat. No. 5,509,070 separates content delivery from charging, which may suffice for charging computer programs that a user buys rarely, perhaps few times a year. However, separating the content delivery from the charging may not suit well for news clips or pieces of music or similar content services that a user is hoped to buy often, for example on a daily basis.